{"id":9207,"date":"2020-02-06T11:29:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T10:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=9207"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:59:04","slug":"questions-about-daemons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2020\/02\/06\/questions-about-daemons\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions about d\u00e6mons"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a keen – dare I say it: avid – reader and I always have a book on the go [on my Kindle normally]. Typically I read contemporary fiction alternating with non-fiction [biography, science etc.]. I love the feeling of getting lost in a book and savor the feeling of being excited at the prospect of a quick read of another chapter [or 2 or 3 \u2026]. My current book is His Dark Materials<\/em> by Philip Pullman \u2026<\/p>\n

This is actually a trilogy of books, but I purchased it as a single, 930-page volume, which I am working my way through. At the time of writing, I am about 40% of the way through and thoroughly gripped.<\/p>\n

Normally, when I read fiction, I want to learn something. So I am always fussy about the integrity of the author; I want the research to be done right. If it is science fiction, I expect the science to be sound or, at least, conceivable. For this reason, I am challenged by fantasy as a genre. I have great difficulty with suspending belief and accepting a different reality. Somehow, however, Pullman enables me to believe in the world that he describes – even if some of seems, to me, to be downright impossible. I think the writing – the quality of his language and the details of the descriptions – is the secret. The big thing that I learn from this reading is lots of new words [I love having a built-in dictionary on my Kindle].<\/p>\n

An aspect of Pullman\u2019s alternative universe [or, I should say, of one of the universes] is the concept of a d\u00e6mon: an animal companion possessed by every human. The d\u00e6mon is separate from the individual, but also part of them; if the human and d\u00e6mon get physically separated by more than a short distance, it causes great distress and pain to both. Children\u2019s d\u00e6mons have not \u201csettled\u201d – i.e. decided what animal to be; this occurs at puberty and the form they take is in some ways an indication of the character of the person. When a human dies, their d\u00e6mon just disappears; if a d\u00e6mon is killed, the human dies also. The idea of d\u00e6mons is fundamental to the series of books.<\/p>\n

Because I am a naturally curious person, I always want to understand things, to ask questions. In the case of d\u00e6mons, I have quite a few:<\/p>\n